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Victorian Squid wrote:It's a favorite of mine, but only as the early chunk of a trilogy not in isolation. I don't think any of the three Deptford novels can be fully appreciated on their own instead of as parts of a whole.

I read it when I was 17 or 18, so I would likely have a different reaction to it now.

The copy of Fifth Business that I bought when I was in high school had an huge printing error: the first fifty or so pages were actually from some other, Spanish-language book. I remember thinking "Man, they're assigning us some real avant-garde stuff for English class this year."

The witness said Mr Brown then called out to Ms Hay's adult daughter: "Look at this, I'm tittie-f***ing your mother!".

Royal Nonesuch wrote:The copy of Fifth Business that I bought when I was in high school had an huge printing error: the first fifty or so pages were actually from some other, Spanish-language book. I remember thinking "Man, they're assigning us some real avant-garde stuff for English class this year."

I'm surprised it was required reading for an American English course in high school. The author seems so much more renowned in Canada.

Story - I'm of two minds on issue 5 of Iron Man 2.0, on the one hand, I'm a huge fan of what Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker and later Duane Swierczynski did with Iron Fist, and the creation of the Immortal Weapons, so therefore I was immensely please to see them return, and to see that return written by a writer who's work I am enjoying immensely in Nick Spencer. But on the other hand, this issue was not only an interruption of the ongoing plotline of 'Palmer Addley is dead', but barely features War Machine at all.

I think in the end, my opinion of this issue will be shaped by what comes next in this story arc. If Spencer can manage to fit in plenty of Iron Fist and Immortal Weapon action in alongside and not at the expense of War Machine's starring role, then this issue will be worth it as useful set-up. But if that set-up doesn't pay off... then I'll remember this issue as being bad. Does that make sense? It's a shame I have to provide a grading now, as I feel it's hard to judge what is only set-up.

But what set-up we do get is decent enough. We are introduced to a new character, Sun Wukong, or The Handsome Monkey King. A bad-ass kung-fu guy who lives in the mystical 8th city, and demonstrates how bad-ass he is by doing kung-fu. I think that these kung-fu ideas really let a writer let loose and you can see how much fun Spencer is having with lines like 'I stole the Royal Wine from the very lips of the Jade Emperor!'. They may be meaningless one-liners, but they were awesome one-liners. After Handsome Monkey King defeats some goons, we get the crossover invasion, as a Fear Itself Hammer smashes into a nearby mountain.

It's only then, after 10 pages, that War Machine actually shows up. He's also embroiled in Fear Itself, at the very epicentre of 'Blitzkrieg USA', fighting alongside some of the other Secret Avengers against Nazi Robots. He and John Aman (aka the Prince Of Orphans) are transported to someplace mystical, presumably the 8th city, where the Hammer fell. This all happens fairly quickly, and for no real reason. But thankfully Spencer is aware of that, and has Rhodey himself ask why the hell he is there alongside Fat Cobra and the rest of them. The fact that Spencer addresses this makes me feel he will have a good explanation and that this story will be good.

In the final scenes of the issue, Iron Fist shows up. I felt Spencer did really well here in having Danny Rand's inner monologue mirror Rhodey's early on, providing a useful link which makes the story feel more complete than it really is at the moment. Oh yeah, and Titania (already all Hammered-up) and Crusher Creel are there too.

This issue, as I said, is pretty much all set-up for what's to come in this arc, but it is juicy set-up. Spencer has a lot of characters in play here, we've got War Machine, we've got Iron Fist and the other Immortal Weapons, we've got Sun Wukong, and we've also got Absorbing Man and Titania. This issue promises something epic, and I really hope we get it. Of course I am a bit miffed that the main plot threads of Iron Man 2.0 have been dismissed after really only just getting started, but that's the nature of crossovers. I'm glad that Spencer is using Fear Itself as an opportunity to use some awesome characters, and not just tell deleted scenes from the main series. Let's just hope he sticks the landing.

Art - Ariel Olivetti is a bit of an acquired taste I find, some readers find his computer-generated backgrounds a bit hard to stomach, but I don't really mind them, especially when his figure work is so strong. I just find the way he draws people to be wonderfully idiosyncratic, and his take on War Machine's new suit is top-drawer. I doubt he can draw Immortal Weapon kung-fu fighting to the standards of David Aja, but we shall see. It's just good to have some artistic consistency on this book, the first 3 issues were a mish-mash.

Best Line - Choose any of Sun Wukong's smack-talk put-downs, choose all of them!

Story - So it's finally here, at long last it's come. The first bad comic I have read by Nick Spencer. I suppose it's for the best it's come here, rather than in say the last issue of Morning Glories, or the first issue of Spencer's revolutionary Spider-Man relaunch alongside Todd McFarlane. This is just an event tie-in and fill-in, in the long run it doesn't matter if it was bad.

But it was bad. Maybe it's down to where I come from. I am not an American, I am British, and therefore I didn't have the reaction Spencer was probably going for when he had Abraham Lincoln and George Washington come to life and start killing Nazis with the power of patriotism. I didn't have the reaction I probably should have when Congressman Gary started quoting Lincoln. I don't have that cultural connection to it. Sure, I like America, I've visited it a few times and enjoyed myself, but I wasn't caught up in this web of Americana.

To be honest, I just found it laughable, it reminded me of Night At The Museum, it reminded me of that episode of South Park with David Blaine and the Super Best Friends (How do you stop a giant stone Abraham Lincoln? A giant stone John Wilkes Booth), it was just weird. I wonder if the events of this issue will appear in the main Fear Itself mini-series? That would be out of place.

Maybe it's my fault, maybe this issue reduced all red-blooded right-thinking Americans to tears and caused them to enlist in the army. But I am not red-blooded or right-thinking, I'm a cynical yellow-toothed pale-skinned Englishman, and this kind of patriotism rubs me the wrong way, whatever country it's from. You'd never get Captain Britain fighting alongside Winston Churchill and D'Israeli in such a way, only if it was a joke. Stuff like this embarrasses most Brits I feel.

That's not to say this issue was all bad, Spencer has a good handle on the Beast, and it made sense that he'd have friends in the American government, and Spencer tied in the idea of Mutant Rights with that of Civil Rights really well. I also enjoyed Ant-Man's dialogue with War Machine, I feel Spencer writes Eric O'Grady really well.

So yeah, this issue was not for me, it was too American, too preachy, and too damn silly. But of course it's not Nick Spencer's job to write for British people, the vast majority of his work is being read by Americans, so maybe it's not my place to judge your cultural heritage and touchstones.

Art - Scot Eaton is an artist I always enjoy, his work is perfectly suited to mainstream superheroics, and this issue looked really good. He managed to ground some of the ridiculousness of the Dinosaurs and the Giant Stone Lincoln and almost make it make sense.